Ringswatch: Early Snow Causes Problems For PJ

The following report
of recent happenings in the Ruapehu area - the site of the
latest filming of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy - was sent
to Scoop by a recent visitor to the area…

“Apparently the
700 crew have been filming last week (pre Easter) around
Whakapapa. We went up to the skifield (top of the Bruce) and
a lot of equipment, lighting rigs, cables, etcetera, were
set up in Happy Valley skifield - at the time (Saturday),
totally snowless, very rocky and misty, wonderfully
atmospheric.

Lots of trucks and boxes (well metal sheds)
labelled "tech", a big lighting unit up on the ridge
overlooking the happy valley skifield (that ridge that goes
steeply down into the valley beyond – if you know the
skifield). Also a big lighting boom/crane thing that looked
like it was able to be swung around with a big light set on
the end.

Not a lot of people or security was seen, just
some suspicious Wellington looking guy in a trench coat
waving a polaroid. He wasn't saying anything. It kinda
looked like there would be room to film mid range close-ups
of people fighting, not panoramic, but body length, also
room to pan down the skifield for charges etc.

At the
entrance to the skifield, there were a lot more trucks and
sheds including a large Marquee tent. On Tuesday morning
the ski lodge owner where we were staying said that this
Marquee tent was Weta's 300 person costume tent and had been
snowed under during the night, and part of it had collapsed
causing damage.

Also, he reckoned that it was going to
stuff up the shooting schedule (....well thats unusual), as
they were filming in areas that had no snow that were now
covered (On Tuesday it snowed for several hours in the
afternoon down to around 1000 feet I think, below Waitonga
Falls, all the trees were covered, and everything was a bit
dim, but extremely picturesque).

The walking areas were
all carefully fenced (metal stakes and "hotsite" plastic
tape), and adjacent scrubby areas were carefully covered
with green garden netting to protect them. I guess a fairly
active skifield is also a good way to get around some of
these issues.

The lady at the Ohakune visistors centre
said that they had been filming round Whakapapa that week,
over Easter near Tukino and this week were moving round to
film on the Turoa side of the mountain.

Mostly the
discussion was on the attendant lack of accommodation, in
that everything was booked out. Mostly everyone’s in motels
though (especially film crew), not backpackers, though the
ski lodge guy said that yeah they would put extras in places
like this (one of the nicest backpackers I've been in), but
even then they get there own room. Bloody Hollywood.

Furthermore at the Powderhorn – the hippest bar in
Ohakune - they kept closing the hot pool bar at 6pm because
the lady said they had "very important guests upstairs" and
because the noise travels and they didn't want to disturb
them.
“

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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